An Honest Question to Other Americans

[Maios]

This doesn't upset me at all, and it seems more that the OP wants to brag that he knew the Finnish flag than his friend being ignorant. The lady he was with was probably making a silly joke, just like I do when I don't know something (amg who needs to know this stuff....?). I'm sure there are things that some people find important that OP doesn't know a thing about. Or similarly, we have millions of people who have no idea how computers work but it also doesn't make me look down my nose at them when I get all the computer Jeopardy question correct and they didn't.

[Ebildays]

Do you feel embarrassed by the unfortunate geographical and cultural ignorance many Americans display, or are you one of the types of people I described above? I know that I get angry that these people often represent me abroad. I'm not trying to come off as pretentious.

I don't feel embarrassed by the geographical and cultural ignorance that many Americans display. If something does not interest you, as an adult, I don't see the reason to learn about it. What I do find to be embarrassing is the unwillingness to learn about a different culture when talking about that culture and trying to understand its people. Ignorance is nothing to be embarrassed by because at some point or another we were/are ignorant of many different things. The problem is more about being ignorant of something but trying to defend your opinion of it based off of that ignorance, if that makes sense.

[Kuniku]

I think Finland possibly wasn't the best example the OP could've given (obviously anecdotally it was relevent) but you see, for example, the classic "dumb Americans" youtube video and those 'average' americans often didn't even know where the UK was, or indeed where in the world the iraq war was being faught, those are surely more significant places to the US?

[Reeve]

Not an American, but yah it bugs me...mostly b/c they pretend to be us when they travel...not that many people are fooled.
If you are going to pretend to be from my country, be on your best behaviour. Or we will all get tattoo's of our flag and make it known to the world, then you'll REALLY be fucked when you travel, or laughed at when you are at home with my flag tattooed on you

Seems stupid for an American to pretend to be Canadian when you're traveling. People will usually judge you on how you act, not what country your from. At least that's been my experience.

If anything, the people that had assumptions about the cultural/geopolitical ignorance of Americans might have come away with a different view after talking to me. Or so I hope.